In electrostatography an image comprising an electrostatic field pattern, usually of non-uniform strength, (also referred to as an electrostatic latent image) is formed on an insulative surface of an electrostatographic element by any of various methods. For example, the electrostatic latent image may be formed electrophotographically (i.e., by imagewise photo-induced dissipation of the strength of portions of an elecrtostatic field of uniform strength previously formed on a surface of an electrophotographic element comprising a photoconductive layer and an electrically conductive substrate), or it may be formed by dielectric recording (i.e., by direct electrical formation of an electrostatic field pattern on a surface of a dielectric material). Typically, the electrostatic latent image is then developed into a toner image by contacting the latent image with an electrostatograhic developer. If desired, the latent image can be transferred to another surface before development.
One well known type of electrostatographic developer comprises a dry mixture of toner particles and carrier particles. Developers of this type are commonly employed in well known electrostatographic development processes such as cascade development and magnetic brush development. The particles in such developers are formulated such that the toner particles and carrier particles occupy different positions in the triboelectric continuum, so that when they contact each other during mixing to form the developer, they become triboelectrically charged, with the toner particles acquiring a charge of one polarity and the carrier particles acquiring a charge of the opposite polarity. These opposite charges attract each other such that the toner particles cling to the surfaces of the carrier particles. When the developer is brought into contact with the latent electrostatic image, the electrostatic forces of the latent image attract the toner particles, and the toner particles are pulled away from the carrier particles and become electrostatically attached imagewise to the latent image-bearing surface. The resultant toner image can then be fixed in place on the surface by application of heat or other known methods (depending upon the nature of the surface and of the toner image) or can be transferred to another surface, to which it then can be similarly fixed.
A number of requirements are implicit in such development schemes. Namely, the electrostatic attraction between the toner and carrier particles must be strong enough to keep the toner particles held to the surfaces of the carrier particles while the developer is being transported to and brought into contact with the latent image, but when that contact occurs, the electrostatic attraction between the toner particles and the latent image must be even stronger, so that the toner particles are thereby pulled away from the carrier particles and deposited on the latent image-bearing surface.
Many known dry, two-component electrostatographic developers contain thermoplastic toner particles and carrier particles that comprise a core material coated with a fluorohydrocarbon polymer, such as poly(vinylidene fluoride) or poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-tetrafluoroethylene). See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,546,060; 4,478,925; 4,076,857; and 3,970,571. Such polymeric fluorohydrocarbon carrier coatings can serve a number of known purposes. One such purpose can be to aid the developer to meet the electrostatic force requirements mentioned above by shifting the carrier particles to a position in the triboelectric series different from that of the uncoated carrier core material, in order to adjust the degree of triboelectric charging of both the carrier and toner particles. Another purpose can be to reduce the frictional characteristics of the carrier particles in order to improve developer flow properties. Still another purpose can be to reduce the surface hardness of the carrier particles so that they are less likely to break apart during use and less likely to abrade surfaces (e.g., photoconductive element surfaces) that they contact during use. Yet another purpose can be to reduce the tendency of toner material or other developer additives to become undesirably permanently adhered to carrier surfaces during developer use (often referred to as scumming). A further purpose can be to alter the electrical resistance of the carrier particles. All of these, and even more, purposes are well known in the art for polymeric fluorohydrocarbon carrier coatings.
However, while such carrier coatings can serve all of the above-noted purposes well, in some cases they do not adequately serve some or all of those purposes simultaneously. For example, in some developer compositions, polymeric fluorohydrocarbon carrier coatings can serve many of the above-noted purposes well, but, depending upon the nature of the toner particles and carrier core material desired to be included in the developer, such carrier coatings can cause the developer to acquire a triboelectric charge that is too high for optimum developer performance; i.e., the electrostatic latent image has difficulty pulling the toner particles away from the carrier particles. This is especially true in some positively charged developers (developers in which the toner particles triboelectrically acquire a positive charge, and the polymeric fluorohydrocarbon-coated carrier particles acquire a negative charge).
One method of modifying the triboelectric charging propensity of carrier particles having a fluorohydrocarbon polymer coating is described in my copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 932,847, filed Nov. 20, 1986, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. That method comprises dehydrofluorinating the polymeric coating by contacting the coated particles with a basic solution. While that method is quite effective for modifying charging propensity, for some applications the degree of charging propensity that can result from that method is still higher that would be optimum.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a convenient method of modifying the triboelectric charging propensity of particles coated with a fluorohydrocarbon polymer, so that the particles could be used as carriers that exhibit the beneficial properties noted above in electrographic developers but do not cause certain developers to acquire an undesirable magnitude of triboelectric charge. The present invention provides such a method.